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Education Public Transport | February 03, 2020

Huge win as Labor U-turns on school bus routes

Labor Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne has caved to immense community pressure from local residents and will reinstate bus routes the government scrapped in Horsham.

Ms Kealy had called on the Minister for Public Transport to urgently intervene after changes to bus routes were announced last week which included cuts to a number of services.

Ms Kealy said the changes caused widespread outrage and chaos in the community – particularly for students who used the buses to travel to and from school, and their families and educators – and led to an overwhelming number of complaints to her electorate office.

She said Wimmera Roadways had advised schools that as of Tuesday, Public Transport Victoria would reinstate the school bus services cut by Labor last week, meaning school bus services and timetabling would revert to last year’s arrangements.

She said while this was a huge win for the community, confirmation was still needed from Labor and PTV to confirm that this was not just a short-term fix to end the crisis and silence local people.

“Labor Minister Horne should never have made these cuts in the first place. It was an extremely short-sighted and disastrous decision which was not communicated to the community at any stage,” Ms Kealy said.

“Locals always know best, and the Labor Minister and PTV should have listened when people in Lowan told them these changes would cause distress and disorder.

“The Minister bowing to community pressure to reinstate the runs the government cut just shows what local people can achieve when we work together. I thank everyone who raised their concerns or made a complaint for helping ensure our region gets the outcomes it deserves.”